This is Week 3 of my Snap Life 2013. This week the weather changed drastically and we got our first snow of the year. Not only was it the first snow of the year, but it was also Rupert's first snow. The pic below is the two page spread. On the left I used a page protector that holds (2) 3 x 4 and (1) 4 x 6. On the right I used a page protector that holds (4) 3 x 4. (I find these the easiest and quickest to work with).﻿﻿﻿
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Week 3 - Both Pages

I used a Simple Stories journal card to create my date card. As this process is all still new to me I have been trying different things. I used a pre-printed "Enjoy the Everyday" card for my date card and used up some of my Echo Park kit stickers to create the Week 3 and then my Simple Stories Typeset Snap Stickers for the actual January dates. At this point, when creating my posts I have noticed that everything has been kept quite simple so maybe I need to ramp up the journal cards and inserts with a few more embellishments.

This week started out snowy and ended snowy. The photo below is of the light dusting of snow that we received on Monday morning. They had predicted heavy snow on Monday but that's not what we got. The weather here doesn't ever seem to be consistent from one year to the next and even more so the news never seems to get the forecast right. It was still dusk when I awoke, quite early, so with the early morning and the snow on the ground the world seemed to have a bluish tint to it.

Once it did actually snow enough for there to be a few inches on the ground Rupert absolutely loved it. We weren't sure how he would respond to it as he typically doesn't like to be out in the rain so we thought that he would like the snow even less. However we found that he quite enjoyed it, as long as he was out playing in it.

When the heavy snow did fall they had predicted only about 3 inches so out of curiosity I decided to measure the snow fall to see what it truly was. This is me putting a ruler in the "snow drift" that was resting on the top of our patio table. Closer to 5 1/2 inches.

My journal card is just basic - plain white card stock with some details about the week created in Word on my computer. (Not sure if you can actually read the journaling on the card, however this was the first time that I haven driven in the heavy snow after living in the UK for over 7 years. Yes it has snowed before, but typically I have either had a "snow day" or had Simon drive me to and from work, that is, if they hadn't closed business for the day due to the snow). Being from California originally it's not like I had many an opportunity to drive in the snow and be comfortable with it.

The Monk Bench that Never Was: I have been wanting a Monk Bench for quite some time and decided that I was going to get one this year. At Christmas (or actually a few weeks before that, as I wanted it to be delivered near Christmas) that I would get this as a present to myself. There was a perfect "hole" in the front hall where it would sit nicely. So I searched around (on the internet that is) for one that I liked and that could deliver within a 2 to 3 week window, which would get it here just in time for Christmas. Well suffice it to say that nearly midday through January they still hadn't delivered it and were giving me nothing but excuses as to why. So with regret and a bit of annoyance I cancelled my order. That spot in the front hall would have to stay empty just a little while longer.

Came home to a bit of a shocker on Tuesday after a very long stressful day. When I got in Simon informed me that our landlord had popped in (yes, we rent) to let us know that the rent was being increased by 10% as of the "start" of the new year (which would be the 21st of the month as that was our move-in date). She wanted to make sure that we have received the 45-day notice letter from the estate agent informing us of this. Surprisingly we had not. This made an already stressful day even more stressful and didn't make for a good evening. However, I came to find out the next morning that Simon had got his information wrong, she was only increasing the utilities by 10% not the entire rent payment.

Well, that's the end of Week 3, hopefully I will continue to persevere! So far, so good.
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The left hand page and the title banner for Week 2. I chose the yellow colour as I wanted to tie into the yellow in the "This is Life" insert card opposite as well as some of the colour in the rest of the week. (The title was created in Word. )

﻿Laura (the treasured colleague that we had the leaving lunch for back in Week 1) and I weren't ones to text much when she was here in the UK but we really want to make a point of keeping in touch now that she has returned to the US. We probably both aren't the best at keeping in touch electronically so have vowed to truly make an effort. As we were doing good so far (I know, only week two) I wanted to reflect that in this weeks layout.A resolutions journal card. Everyone always seems to ask about resolutions at this time of year and I have never been one to be a "resolution" person, so this is just my ramblings on my thoughts behind resolutions.

This is a Simple Stories 4x6 card that I have used as an insert for this week to add something extra.

Simon asked in passing if he could do anything for me this week to cheer me up as he knew I was down in the mouth about missing Laura and I simply replied "do something nice" so I was pleasantly surprised to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Very sweet. x

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Simon has been teaching general construction and brickwork at Thames Valley University since last fall. He does enjoy the job but unfortunately it wasn't working out for him as he had hoped so we had a few discussions and he made the difficult decision to leave the role.

Journal card for the Week (created in Word) Just your basic black text on a white background, nothing special.I still laugh every time I see this picture! I know it could potentially look like animal cruelty but I assure you it is not. Friends of ours have a Facebook page for their dog and quite often "he" will post funny things on there (as if it is from the dogs perspective). Well Marsi (the dog) posted a pic on there, similar to the one below, about how he cannot tolerate inbred dogs (British humour). So I made some toast, cut out a hole with a cookie cutter and then placed it on Rupert's face to quickly take this shot to post on Marsi's page. (I assure you it was only on there for the briefest of seconds). I would never do anything to harm my hairy child.

Well that's all for now. Liking the process and enjoying keeping track of the day to day.

(I've decided I'm going to go with Snap Life, as in [to] snap/capture life)In looking at some of the other blog's for Project Life I know there has been some debate about how to "schedule" your week (is schedule the right word?). How to lay out or follow your week. I know some follow the week as the calendar lies, so if the day of the week that was the 1st day of the month was a Tuesday, then their week for Project Life would start there. I know some like to organise their weeks starting on a weekend or round the other way, but I thought I would just go with what I thought was the simplest. Which was to start on the first Monday (technically) of the year. So I started on Monday, December 31st (2012). Yes I know, not exactly the first day of the year but I thought, with my quirky sense of humour, that it would sort of be funny to start it then and make it look like I had already been keeping track of my life this way. I just sort of envisioned it in my head this way, so that's how it came out on paper. Call me crazy. (Maybe it was also the part in me that thought if I could convince others I had been doing this last year, than maybe I would have a reason to carry on with it........ no, not really, but worth a shot). So what did Week 1 in my Snap Life (a.k.a. Project Life) consist of. Well I actually used (4) page protectors on this first week - one 6x8 page, one page with (2) 3x4 pockets and (1) 4x6 (this page was in the middle of the layout so used both the front and back) and finally one page with (2) 4x4 pockets and (1) 2x8, as well as some inserts (memorabilia) that I included.

New Year's Eve of course.My introduction to Snap Life and my name tag! (I was not looking forward to returning to work in the New Year)

A farewell lunch for a treasured colleague at The Peking Inn in Cookham. The best Chinese food and level of service for miles around! They are brilliant there. Laura, the colleague, was in a training programme and had been assigned to our "London" office for 6 months, since July. She was now leaving to return to the corporate office in the US.

Last evening with Laura before her return to the US. We had struck up quite a strong friendship in the short time that she was here and I was not looking forward to her return to the US. I would miss my new found friend. She spent her last evening with us.

Sunday was spent sourcing a hotel in Windsor for an upcoming meeting that was taking place in about two weeks time at work. I had about (20) people arriving for a training meeting from various different countries as well as the US and had nowhere to put them. One of our event companies had suggested they could get a good price at Sir Christopher Wren's Hotel and Spa in Windsor so we went to check it out. We (Simon and I) had a bit of afternoon tea and then the manager gave us a tour. The hotel turned out to be absolutely wonderful and fits the ticket to a T! That's that booked!

Hello Life page with journal card

I found the process quite fun and easy to throw together. There didn't need to be a great deal of planning, some in regards to obviously what I was going to include but not necessarily every detail as to how it was going to go down on the page, like with normal scrapbooking. And the sheer beauty of it was, that if I didn't like it, I could simply take out the 3 x 4 card (or the likes thereof) and simply replace it without having to worry about ruining or throwing off the whole layout. So far, so good!

Sn@p Album's (or should it be Project Sn@p or maybe Sn@p Life...?)﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

Upon looking into Project Life further I came to find that they only had one size album which was 12 x 12. Not only had I been trying to get away from this size in my regular scrapbooking, creating more things like mini albums and working outside my "comfort" zone, but I just didn't know that this size would necessarily work for me.

Not simply because of the "comfort" zone issue but mainly because I did not think that I would have enough daily or weekly things, between Simon, Rupert & I to fill up two complete pages of 12 x 12. So when I started to look around more at other competitive items on the market I found that the Sn@p album seemed to suit my purposes better. I felt more comfortable working with the smaller 8 x 6 size and felt that this wouldn't be too overwhelming for me to fill.

And again, as I was looking to make scrapbooking a more enjoyable process on a regular basis, something easy, quick and simple rather than something that had overtaken my craft table and would cause me feelings of inadequacy, (as I already have enough of those from my childhood!) I decided that working with the Sn@p albums would be a good idea or good start for me.

As well, as I had a tendency to start projects in the past and not finish them, I wasn't certain at this point that I would be able to get through the year, consistently. (Who knows, fast forward to July or August and I simply may not be doing this anymore or creating posts about it, but we shall see.) I guess because I was always a chronological 12 x 12 scrapper, the projects were never really truly finished as life was on-going so therefore, so were the albums. It's only when I started doing albums that focused again on specific life events, that could be completed once that event was completed, that I seemed to falter. So here I was hoping that this on-going rolling approach would also apply to the Sn@p albums.

Well, we shall see!

But in saying that, at least I have done my first week, to be posted soon!

I have to say that when I first heard of this thing called Project Life I thought it sounded like something that a group of techno geeky research lab-bers would come up with when naming a research project, a code name for a project where they were secretly studying their colleagues (of for that matter, normal people or "non-geeks") as a means of exploratory observation.

I have seen so many people taking up this way of scrapbooking that I thought I might give it a go. As the experts say, scrapbooking should be fun and not overwhelming. When you are trying to plan an album and you find yourself never completing it as it becomes too much of a chore, to only then start another new album to commemorate a new event in your life and more than likely not completing this one either all simply because you didn't have the time you'd like to dedicate to your page layouts, it becomes a vicious cycle. You then start feeling guilty or intimidated every time you sit down at your craft table, whereby you find yourself not wanting to scrap as much and in turn not feeling good about scrapbooking which defeats the whole point of scrapbooking to begin with.

So, like I said, I thought this year I would try something a bit different. In addition I did get caught up in the Smash book craze by K&Co. when they were released and I found that I liked the freedom and guilt-free feeling that came with being creative in this way. It reminded of being in high school, when my friends and I had a slam book, (not in a mean way, like a burn book) but a "book" (term used loosely as it was really just a spiral bound notebook) that we would pass around and ask fun questions about one another and as it gradually filled up we would also cut pictures from magazines and glue or tape them in there. Soap or movie stars we had crushes on, designers or clothes we liked, places we wanted to go, all the while continuing to pass it around amongst ourselves. Like that, I found the Smash book something that you could either spend 5 minutes on, if you had a busy day and just didn't have the time to sit down and scrap or longer, like 30 minutes, if you felt like being more creative and had the time to do so.

Anyway, I digress.

As I found this type of scrapbooking (Smashing) so freeing and as I hadn't been able to do regular scrapbooking (as I had moved like 13 times in the past 7 years and most of my supplies were still in boxes) I thought Project Life might be an easier way to document my life and memories too. As well, like the Smash book, I liked that you could document the daily or the weekly, depending on what you found important or interesting.

Christine/American Girl living in England

About Me

This is the story of my journey through life……..hopefully done with a little bit of creativity, pretty paper and glitter. I have always been “crafty”, drawn to things like felt, construction paper and Elmer’s glue from a very young age! Trying my hand at activities such as art, drawing, painting, music, creative writing and let’s not forget photography. My LOVES: Paper of course, pink & black, anything retro, travel, my crazy JRT Rupert, English summers, lazy afternoons & quite recently fashion, more specifically the Retro & Vintage fashion world and scene,can you dig it (having formerly been a tomboy). Happy that you could drop by to visit my small corner of the blogosphere!